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I am branching off from the discussion on Quilt Codes to excerpt a passage from William Still’s book. It brings up another topic: "Free Labor Produce and Goods."
Free labor produce were goods made or grown without slave labor. Therefore cotton would be boycotted along with cane sugar, salt, etc. by radical abolitionist. Not only did this boycott affect what abolitionist consumed, but also wore. Free Labor / Free Produce abolitionists wore wool, linen, silk and only cotton grown outside of the slavery system. Abby Kelly exemplified this practice as well as Sojourner Truth who is depicted in her portraits wearing silk. In William Still's Underground Railroad (1872) he prints a letter from Frances Ellen Watkins Harper discussing her quest for a free labor dress.
This is just one example of the Free Produce/Goods abolitionist movement. Michigan farmers went to great lengths to find substitutes for sugar, salt and cotton: salt was harvested from the mines in Southeastern Michigan; beets were grown and processed for sugar; cotton was unsuccessfully attempted; and sheep farming was a major industry. "That kind of abolition" seems to exemplifies the mid-nineteenth century mingling of politics, socia activitism and economics in affecting the use of material goods by a particular segment of the population.
-Yulie
Free labor produce were goods made or grown without slave labor. Therefore cotton would be boycotted along with cane sugar, salt, etc. by radical abolitionist. Not only did this boycott affect what abolitionist consumed, but also wore. Free Labor / Free Produce abolitionists wore wool, linen, silk and only cotton grown outside of the slavery system. Abby Kelly exemplified this practice as well as Sojourner Truth who is depicted in her portraits wearing silk. In William Still's Underground Railroad (1872) he prints a letter from Frances Ellen Watkins Harper discussing her quest for a free labor dress.
Temple, Maine
October 20, 1854
"...I spoke on Free Produce [for the Maine Anti-slavery Society annual meeting], and know by the way I believe in that kind of Abolition. Oh, it does seem to strike at the principal of roots of the matter. . .. . Oh, how can we pamper our appetites upon luxuries drawn from reluctant fingers? Oh, can slavery exist long if it did not sit on a commercial throne? . . . I have reason to be thankful that I am able to give a little more for a Free Labor dress, if it is coarser. I can thank God that upon its warp and woof I see no stain of blood and tears; that to procure a little finer muslin for my limbs no crushed and broken heart went out in sighs, and that from the field where it was raised went up no wild and startling cry unto the throne of God to witness there in language deep and strong, that in demanding that cotton I was nerving oppression's hand for deeds of guilt and crime. If the liberation of the slave demanded it, I could consent to part with a portion of the blood from my own veins if that would do him any good."
October 20, 1854
"...I spoke on Free Produce [for the Maine Anti-slavery Society annual meeting], and know by the way I believe in that kind of Abolition. Oh, it does seem to strike at the principal of roots of the matter. . .. . Oh, how can we pamper our appetites upon luxuries drawn from reluctant fingers? Oh, can slavery exist long if it did not sit on a commercial throne? . . . I have reason to be thankful that I am able to give a little more for a Free Labor dress, if it is coarser. I can thank God that upon its warp and woof I see no stain of blood and tears; that to procure a little finer muslin for my limbs no crushed and broken heart went out in sighs, and that from the field where it was raised went up no wild and startling cry unto the throne of God to witness there in language deep and strong, that in demanding that cotton I was nerving oppression's hand for deeds of guilt and crime. If the liberation of the slave demanded it, I could consent to part with a portion of the blood from my own veins if that would do him any good."
Still, William, The Underground Railroad, Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1872.
This is just one example of the Free Produce/Goods abolitionist movement. Michigan farmers went to great lengths to find substitutes for sugar, salt and cotton: salt was harvested from the mines in Southeastern Michigan; beets were grown and processed for sugar; cotton was unsuccessfully attempted; and sheep farming was a major industry. "That kind of abolition" seems to exemplifies the mid-nineteenth century mingling of politics, socia activitism and economics in affecting the use of material goods by a particular segment of the population.
-Yulie